SUBSCRIPTIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO : CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY 128 BARNSBURY ROAD LONDON, N.1

EDITORIAL

ARCHAEOLOG Y is a growing subject. Every year more and more people visit or take part in excavations, hear about archaeology on the television or radio, or tr y to find out more about their past, how we come to be what we are. And as this curiosity is growing, it is time there was an archaeological magazine fo r the general reader. For although there are many professional journals dealing with every period of time and every area of the country, there is no general magazine that gives an overall picture of what is happening in archaeology. Indeed, even full-time professional archaeologists are often overwhelmed by the sheer volume of specialist publications, so Current Archaeology hopes to provide a guide fo r everyone to just what is going on in archaeology.

To do this we have travelled extensively. In the last year we have covered nearly 20,000 miles in our motor caravan, travelling the length and breadth of the country from Scotland to Cornwall, and visiting nearly 100 excavations. We have talked to archaeologists, attended lectures, taken photographs wherever possible, and joined in excavations ourselves when time and opportunity allowed. Current Archaeology is our report on what we have seen and heard. However, in every case we have submitted our articles to the excavators concerned, and we would like to thank them all most sincerely fo r giving up their time, not only to talk to us, but also fo r correcting and sometimes even rewriting our articles, and fo r providing us with plans and the official photographs. We would also like to thank Miss de Card i and the staff at the Council fo r British Archaeology fo r all the help and encouragement they have given us in launching this magazine. WH O WE ARE: I began digging with my school archaeological society, and then, after my National Service in the army read Greats at Oxford and became President of the Oxford University Archaeological Society. Since then I have been studying accountancy and edited the magazine of the London Chartered Accountant Students' Society. My wife Wendy read history at Exeter specialising in the medieval period.